#did the same with all of the Titans

[mistergreatbones]

Jason’s the lit nerd but Dick got the name Nightwing from a Kryptonian fable and Robin (in early versions) from Robin Hood

[breesperez139]

Dc x Dp Prompt #6

“I’m a twin”, Damian said one night. He could feel the narrowed eyes of his family drilling holes on his back in disbelief. Not that he could blame them. Damian had never so much as implied being raised with a companion, much less a sibling.

“I had a brother”. Damian paused to recollect himself. He had not said his brother’s name out loud in over 8 years.

“His name was… Danyal”. Damian hated the way his voice wavered, but he could not help it. Danyal was everything to him, his other half. Their heart beat as one and when one heart stopped beating, the other one died with it. At least until his family put his heart on metaphorical life support without ever realizing.

“Where is he now?” His father asked, voice filled with knowing grief and a hint of betrayal. It had in fact been 6 years since Damian first showed up on his doorstep.

“Up there”. All eyes shifted towards the specific star he was pointing to. “Right before he died, he promised me he’d guide me from the stars. Unfortunately, the stars are not visible in Gotham, so my brother is unable to be of much help unless I leave the city.”

“Your brother is Polaris, the North Star?” Tim questioned warily, most likely in attempts to not offend him. Damian was aware of how stupid it sounded, but Danyal had promised, and his brother never broke his promises.

“Yes. Danyal is with the stars now, just as he always wanted”

[amavaria]

Blorbo

[gojosbf]

me when i start talking too much about geto and realise how similar he is to eren

[beginnerblueglass]

I was telling my sister about Titans, and she was like, “the whole Bruce/Dick/Jason storyline is like the prodigal son story, with the older and younger brothers' positions switched,” and I was like ohhhh???

[cienie-isengardu]

Tomas & Liu Kang

I’m trying to put things into right perspective about Smoke, Liu Kang’s approach to Tomas and how pushed into background he was during story mode so bear with me while I’m connecting dots.

Also, to be clear, I’m not here to morally judge the characters, just to talk about the dissonance between Smoke vs Liu Kang intro dialogues and the story mode.

For one, the pre-fight dialogues imply that Tomas lost his family due to Liu Kang (Keeper of Time)’s choice: 

Smoke: "Did you intend for me to be orphaned?" Liu Kang: "Some threads must be cut to weave time’s fabric." 

and

Smoke: "I'm not sure I can forgive you." Liu Kang: "Being Keeper of Time meant making many hard choices."

When Tomas was orphaned, Kuai Liang & Bi-Han’s father adopted him and made one of Lin Kuei. If the accusation is true, then we can assume Liu Kang wanted Tomas to join Lin Kuei, as he did in the past timeline(s). So, in theory, Smoke for whatever reason was important enough for the Keeper of Time to get involved and steer events to get the wanted result. 

Which raises a question, why did Liu Kang not bother to recruit Tomas into Lin Kuei the same way he recruited Kung Lao, Raiden, Johnny Cage or Kenshi, by like, actually talking to him and taking for training? Or even why not just ask the befriended Grandmaster to take the boy (and Tomas' family) under his wings, which I think the man would do without further question.

Instead, Smoke was orphaned, taken in by Lin Kuei, adopted as son of Grandmaster and trained in magic to equalize his chances in the fight (in contrast, Bi-Han’s ice powers seems to be a natural part of him, related to specific bloodline).

Now, if Tomas was so important, if not in the greater scheme of things, then just for Liu Kang (and Kuai Liang), isn’t it weird, he is so sidelined and omitted by Fire Lord in the story mode?

Again, not judging characters, solely pointing out this choice of storyline, as this is especially visible during collecting the champions for the tournament arc.

In Chapter One, when the test was over and Liu Kang came to Kung Lao and Raiden to explain things, he specifically called only Bi-Han (the current Grandmaster) and Kuai Liang (Bi-Han’s blood-brother)

while Tomas was totally omitted and stayed behind with the rest unnamed Lin Kuei warriors.

Which, visually speaking, is weird, as just before that scene we could see Smoke walking alongside his adoptive brothers (with Bi-Han leading the group, Tomas and Kuai Liang walking a bit behind their leader, but before the unnamed warriors);

In the next chapter, again, only Bi-Han and Kuai Liang assisted Fire Lord in his quest to recruit Johnny Cage and Kenshi. Again, both Lin Kuei were addressed by their birth names, instead of codenames

while there is no information why Tomas was left behind. He likely was entrusted with escorting Kung Lao and Raiden to Shaolin Monks, yet the lack of proper mention emphasizes the pushing into the background.

We didn't learn officially Smoke's status as adopted brother of Kuai Liang and Bi-Han until Sub-Zero's chapter (#8). Unless I miss something, the first person on screen to actually address Smoke by his birth name was surprisingly Bi-Han.

Which makes even weirder the lack of including of Tomas from Liu Kang, as the Fire Lord and Smoke stayed allies through the story mode and intro dialogues (with some resentment on Tomas' side for death of his family) while the relationship between Bi-Han and Tomas was much more complicated to begin with.

We could make an argument that Liu Kang didn't want to antagonize Bi-Han by including adopted Tomas too much, however:

A) Bi-Han has never denied Tomas right to consider himself one of Grandmaster's sons - seen especially in Sub-Zero's speech pattern, as Sub-Zero always says just "Father", the same as Tomas and Kuai Liang, never putting emphasis on "my" as a reminder Smoke is adopted. The real conflict is not about whether Tomas is his and Kuai Liang's brother or not, but about him being a true Lin Kuei. What is also worth to keep in mind, any tension between brothers happened only in privacy (here and during the mission), never around Liu Kang.

(A similar thing can be noticed in intro dialogues. In Smoke vs Sub-Zero, Bi-Han specifically says "Because your blood is not Lin Kuei" however in Liu Kang vs Sub-Zero, when Fire Lord claims brothers (plural version!) miss him, Bi-Han doesn't correct his opponent about Tomas not being one. He instead says "Then they shouldn't have disobeyed my commands.")

B) Liu Kang did not show Bi-Han any special respect, especially not the kind of respect and friendship offered to Sindel and her husband, Jerrod. And yes, Fire Lord mentioned Bi-Han before Kuai Liang, and addressed him during the meeting before the mission (while the Sub-Zero's younger brothers - subordinates - stood together in silence)

but that basically it? Bi-Han didn't seem to be favored in any special way, I don't think he even was addressed as Grandmaster by Fire Lord at any moment in story mode.

Which is why I personally don't see why Liu Kang would omit Tomas solely to not hurt Bi-Han's ego or to not antagonize the man further - especially since Bi-Han himself didn't push the matter in any specific - openly - way nor didn't deny Tomas the right to consider himself one of Grandmaster's sons in the first place.

Frankly, as we don't see how Lin Kuei were informed about the upcoming meeting, we should ask, did Liu Kang call Bi-Han and specifically Smoke and Scorpion for the mission, or was that choice made solely by Sub-Zero? Because Lin Kuei for sure must have much more experienced warriors that Tomas (and Kuai Liang for that matter) but also sending on dangerous mission the Grandmaster AND the second* in line of succession seems impractical from the perspective of clan' inner safety.

*second and third, if Tomas was allowed at all to be the heir. Considering how neither Smoke nor Scorpion even for a moment considered that option and how Sektor & Cyrax would choose Bi-Han's corruption of the clan before accepting Kuai Liang as a new leader, the inner clan politics may not be so simple.

During the Lin Kuei mission (Sub-Zero's Band of Brothers Chapter) and during Bi-Han's betrayal (Scorpion's Civil War Chapter), the three brothers didn't address each other by codenames and as much as the situation allowed, freely interacted with each other.

However once Bi-Han is removed from the story mode, Smoke is even more pushed into the background. When asked, he will answer and make some (one?) observation however he barely interacted with other characters, mainly sticking to his brother. The most important exception is the scene when the heroes were wondering what to do after the big revelation and Tomas on his own talked about Lin Kuei and Bi-Han.

The story mode at that time was focused on other characters (like Mileena & Shang Tsung) so understandably, Lin Kuei brothers were put aside however even then Scorpion played a vital part, as it was Kuai Liang making the plan of attack, when Liu Kang wasn't around, while Tomas for most part was just there.

Again, no moral judging of characters just a mere observation how Tomas interacted the most freely with his brothers while was omitted by Liu Kang - and like, never(?) addressed by him in story mode, either by name or codename, even if the intro dialogues strongly imply Liu Kang was the one pushing Tomas into Lin Kuei in the first place.

Which makes an interesting contrast to Bi-Han & Smoke’s relationship but also shows how without intro dialogues, the relationship between Tomas and Liu Kang seems… non existing? I mean, even at the end of story mode, Liu Kang mentions Bi-Han

and his brother Kuai Liang building a new clan,

yet there is literally no mention of Tomas and his participation in the creation of Shirai Ryu and training its members (something confirmed in Scorpion and Smoke's endings).

Which only add to the weird feeling of alienating Tomas in story mode, not by Bi-Han but Liu Kang of all possible people?

[reanimatedgh0ul]

this is LITERALLY their dynamic in a nutshell

[cleromancy]

sexiest and funniest thing roy harper ever did was look at dick grayson and go i could fix him

[pocketramblr]

... hey guys does infinite crisis uh. start on father's day

[tiny-chubby-bird]

AUGH can we PLEASE have an animated show about Nightwing plEASE. like it could be about his character growth after he moves to Blüdhaven, how he and Bruce eventually talk and warm up to each other again. how Dick struggles to deal with everything on his own but he does his absolute best. or it could be about his brotherly, almost parental relationship with Damian.

plus points if you make him openly bisexual too.

[aqua-dan]

Your post about mark waids run had me thinking? Should Garth be more emotionally mature at a younger age considering his circumstances? He’s been on survival mode since day 1 and has only talked to adults since he was like 12 and only knows 4 kids his age that he occasionally spends time with.

Garth is a VERY fast learner, and he obviously had to be majorly adaptive during these years, but I don't think it necessarily equates to emotional intelligence. I think it's a skill he learned over time, but when he was in his early teen years, he was sassier, easily hurt emotionally, worried about where he stood with both Aquaman and his friends, and latched onto people very quickly because he wasn't receiving the attention that a kid needs. Later, he became so anxious about his need to be useful to people that he passed out multiple times because he had started to develop an inferiority complex.

Emotional intelligence is described as: "the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict."

I think Garth had very high skills in some of these areas, and very low ones in others. When it came to his friends, that's one of the areas where I feel Garth didn't have quite as strong emotional intelligence. It certainly isn't like he exercised NO emotional intelligence with them, but Waid's run makes it seem like he was over-empathizing and pardoning negative actions taken against him, where in the original runs he was bottling up those negative feelings and letting them color his experiences with these people for YEARS

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Learning stuff about behind the scenes of The Batman (show) really is just when seeing them not feature certain Batman villains or having to adapt Batgirl first and Robin as soon as Teen Titans was done with, just know it was likely down to the Bat Embargo.

[the-brows-of-knowledge]

While I'm on tumblr for my once in a blue moon: my update is that I've been absolutely thriving from the recent fantasy manga/anime renaissance.

But especially Frieren. I haven't felt this fulfilled from watching a fantasy anime series since FMA. Seriously, everyone should read/watch Frieren: Beyond Journeys End. And Witch Hat Atelier.

[m34gs]

I hope whoever created the Earth Titan in this game steps on a Lego for the next fifty fucking years.

[bittersweetstargazer]

it'll be like. how did I into dc again?

i moved into my brother's old room a few months ago and once in a while I'll look at a drawing he did when he was in like maybe high school?

i'll be like yeah. he's the instigator here.

[dankovskaya]

shittty anime again

Just got done rewatching the l*vi backstory ovas and jesus christ that whole ordeal is such a massive condemnation of the s*rvey corps (<= idk what people be searching) on multiple levels its actually insane. Like. The idea that you could come out of that being like wow what a tragic and harrowing ordeal l*vi is so cool and strong and brave etc and not like WHAT THE FUCK... GET HIM OUT OF HERE!!!! The way erw*n masterminded this whole plot to blackmail him into service and then indirectly got his family killed over LITERALLY NOTHING functionally ruining his whole life and then like. Rubbing in the fact that he has nowhere else to go like his plan was just to secure this talent by any means necessary (WHICH IT PRETTY MUCH WAS?) It is literally horrific 😭 and the fact that it ends with l*vi being like At The End Of The Day No One Ever Knows What Will Happen In A Situation... so I guess I'll follow this guy until I die?